Sunday, August 8, 2010

Step 1: Tea boxes are perfect for a pirate treasure chest because they are shaped like a chest. Take your tea box and help your toddler cover it with which ever color of construction paper you want, yellow or brown are often the first choices. You can tape or glue the paper on the outside and the inside of the tea box.Feel free to use any empty food box that you may have for this craft if you do not have an empty tea box that would work for the chest.Step 2: Next cut out circles for your gold coins. You can use white paper and have our toddler color them silver and gold of cut them out of colored construction paper. Also cut out diamond and rubies shapes so your pirate treasure chest can have some jewels in it. Cut out the shape of a lock for you pirate treasure chest as well to keep all of the riches safe.You and your toddler can really have fun deciding what treasures your treasure chest will hold.

Pianos are huge and can make a lot of noise but they can also be fun to play. The best way to encourage your toddler's interest in a piano without owning a piano or at least one that you can turn the volume down on is to make a silent piano with them.

Step 1: The first thing that you need to do is to cut out the keys for your silent piano craft. Cut out white strips for your white keys, making them a little bit longer than half the width of the cereal box that you will be using. Then cut out your black keys, making them shorter and a less wide than the white keys.In most cases cutting paper isn't an option for toddlers. The first step can be something that you can do ahead of time before starting the craft with your toddler and something that you can help your young child with.

Step 2: With all of your black and white keys cut you can help your toddler glue the white strips down to the front of the cereal box that is your piano. If you do not have glue or find it too messy for your toddler you can help them tape the keys down. There is no need to make the white strips evenly spaced but it helps for the piano to look better if you do.Leaving a small amount of space between each key will actually help the look of the piano.

Step 3: Once you glued (or taped) all of your white keys in place you can begin to put the black keys on. If you want to make the piano more realistic you will want to space the black keys in a way that will resemble how they are on an actual piano. On a standard keyboard you have two black keys next to one another then a space and then threeblack keys next to one another and then the whole then starts over again. Place the black keys so they are are a bit away from the front of the piano.

You can make this toddler train craft as long as you want, keep in mind that each toilet paper roll that you have can be used for a train car. Also the length of string that you use will determine your trains size.Step 1: Cut a piece of string, colorful yarn works very nicely, the length of what you want your train to be, including enough excess string to pull the train. Cut one third of a toilet paper roll off. If you are using index cards trim the bottom so that there are two half circles at the bottom of the card for the train car's wheels. Use three index card for each train car that have.If you are using construction paper in place of the index card simply cut out rectangles the size of an index card (3x5 in.) and trim in the "wheels". Keep in mind that you will need an index card for the train car roof, but that will not require any trimming.Step 2: Have your toddler color the index card or construction paper. Let them use their creativity by choosing different colors, and what designs that want the train car to have. Older children (or you) can draw in such things as windows, doors or hatches on the different sides and roofs of the train cars.If you want to avoid crayons you can paste on different shapes of construction paper.

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About Me

One of my many dreams is to teach caregivers, parents, teachers and child care providers inexpensive craft ideas with items they most likely already have. Being crafty and involved with children opens up so many things for them from bonding, learning, and imagination. I work with children in foster care/ state custody with parents or caregivers who don’t have the funds to provide a lot. I will post blogs on free or inexpensive things to do around Maine along with many craft ideas. I hope you enjoy and please share your photos and stories.